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This coming Thursday marks a new chapter in the long,
convoluted story of Natan Blanc, a 20 year-old who has been imprisoned 10 times
(for 178 days all in) since last November not for any violent crime, but for
refusing to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.

In Israel, the army is the most important socializing
institution, the true 'ticket into society'. Jewish men are conscripted for 3
years, women for two; so far, Arabs are exempt, and as of this week, Orthodox
Jews are no longer (but I'll get to that in a minute). As Uri Misgav has written,
Blanc's objection, unlike those of his predecessors, is primarily political.

"And this type is difficult to deal with on a
theoretical level. This difficulty is understandable, but at the end of the day
the practical decision the system has made has been to trample a lone man who
posed an obstacle. Blanc’s 178 days of imprisonment represent cowardice, vindictiveness
and mostly, a terrifying inflexibility."

But conscientious objection isn't new to Israel. This has
been with us since 1982, when Israel was in the grips of the war within
Southern Lebanon, which was opposed on the basis that Israel's involvement was
arbitrary, ineffective, and a burden too far on the military. It arose from the
experience of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon
- a shared excruciating experience that came to be described as an
exercise in 'shooting and crying', wherein soldiers said they had no choice but
to shoot at enemies hidden in an urban population. This was the context in
which conscientious objection first appeared in Israel, among soldiers
reporting for their second tour. Many of them, if they were able to change the
terms of their service, still had to face intense public scrutiny, often
portrayed as unpatriotic - or worse, as traitors. Blanc, instead, sees his
objection, as patriotic in its own way, in that it is a moral indictment of the
state's policies:

"The main reason for my refusal is the feeling our
country is going towards a non democratic condition of civil inequality between
us and the Palestinians. There are two people in the same land but only the
Israelis can vote in the elections.

Once they said "This is temporary," that
"the occupation will end", that soon we will have two states or a
different democratic solution. Today it's clear to everyone that it is not
going to end in the near future. This state of inequality is going to stay.The
Israeli army has an important role in preserving this condition, and my
conscience does not allow me to take part in that."

To Blanc, the structural (and direct) violence in the
Territories operates on structural violence domestically as well. It is clear
that to Blanc, the Occupation of the West Bank is at least ineffective and
burdensome in the way the occupation of South Lebanon was for soldiers in the
1980s.

Natan Blanc's refusals to serve and repeated
imprisonments come in the context of mass demonstrations against the inclusion
of Orthodox Jews in the army
alongside their less religious peers. As the law stands now (awaiting
ratification in the Knesset), the number of Yeshiva (seminary) students
exempted from service each year will be limited to 1,800, out of the 8,000 or
so required to register annually for the draft. It was a deal that nearly tore
apart the new government's coalition in addition to the thousands who poured
out in protest.

All this said, I can't help but think that Natan and
these Orthodox objectors meet at a profoundly interesting place: outside of
Israel, in the Occupied Territories. Religious objectors refuse by claiming
their prayer as its own form of patriotism and many Orthodox young men, for
their part, have threatened to reject or disobey orders if they contradict
their rabbi's teachings, particularly if they involve dismantling Israeli
settlements in the West Bank - the same settlements and occupations which so
shape Natan Blanc's conscientious objection.

George Orwell once wrote, “by becoming continuous, war
had ceased to exist.” The occupation isn't the only issue deeply dividing
Israeli society, of course, but it is true that it has far outgrown its
physical boundaries.